Volume II - The Northern Cape Provincial Spatial Development ...

Northern Cape PSDF
Volume 2
December 2011
The first copper miners of Namaqualand were the Nama, who, as early as 1691, presented
Simon van der Stel with fine examples of copper and copper artefacts. Early Cornish and
Welsh miners (1848) found and mined the abundance of copper. Some very promising
copper deposits were discovered at Okiep in 1862 and in the 1870s it was ranked the richest
copper min in the world. This led to the construction of a narrow‐gauge railway from Okiep
to Port Nolloth. Springbok, first known as Springboksfontein (reference to the thousands of
Springbok antelopes that frequented the strong spring), owes its existence to the first
copper mines in these parts discovered in the 1850s (Erasmus, 2004).
The Northern Cape’s history changed dramatically with the discovery of diamonds. The first
major diamond was purportedly discovered at Barkley West. In 1866 Erasmus Jacobs found a
small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River on the farm De Kalk leased from local
Griquas, near Hopetown. He showed the pebble to his father who sold it. The pebble was
purchased from Jacobs by Schalk van Niekerk, who later sold it and turned out to be a 21.25
carat (4.25 g) diamond, known as the Eureka. Three years later Schalk van Niekerk sold
another diamond also found in the De Kalk vicinity, the Star of South Africa, for £11,200. The
second diamond was promptly resold in the London markets for £25,000.
Diamond deposits were discovered in 1871 on the farm Vooruitzicht owned by the De Beers
brothers. By 1872, 50 000 hopeful miner/diggers were housed in tents around the hillcock
where the discovery was made. The conditions were ghastly with insufficient water. Medical
and sanitary facilities were very poor and disease was a constant threat. The subsequent
digging of the area created the so‐called Big Hole which is an open‐pit and underground
mine, claimed to be the largest hole excavated by hand. The Big Hole has a surface area of
17 ha and is 463 metres wide. It was excavated to a depth of 240 metres, but then partially
infilled with debris reducing its depth to approximately 215 metres. There were many stories
of success and riches but equal amounts of despair and loss. By 1873 grand homes were
being built and the town was named Kimberley after the Earl of Kimberley who was the
British Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time.
With time Kimberley was able to add a number of ‘firsts’ to its list of accomplishments. It
had the first South African flying school, first stock exchange and first city in the Southern
Hemisphere to install electric street lights. Diamonds and religion seldom go together, but
they did at Kimberley. Here, diamond profits were used to establish and develop the
Seventh Day Adventists faith in South Africa and Australia.
Office of the Premier &
Department of Rural Development & Land Reform
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Dennis Moss Partnership